HP Magic Giveaway entries so far

Here’s a sampling of the entries I’ve gotten, two days into the HP Magic Giveaway contest:

A bunch of folks commented on a review of the G1 Android phone. I am still wondering why there isn’t a pedometer app! But there are lots of other ones I asked for, like a simple compass and a geocaching app.

On that post, briguy992 wants me to be happy that the Android system’s background is fabulous. Most of the time yes, I agree. But when I’ve tried to kill a process I can’t! Despite how cool the G1 is, it’s not some kind of miracle device that manages its memory perfectly, or never crashes. In fact I have to restart it fairly often. So I don’t agree with briguy992 that what I should do is “ignore that feeling it’s not ‘closed’ “. Actually, I think that’s very condescending advice! It is not like I’m just having a superstitious “feeling” like someone who can’t deal with having multiple tabs open. It’s that I’d like to be able to control my computer. Wouldn’t you rather have root on your G1 so you could screw it up thoroughly? 😉 Or go looking for some kind of kill program or task manager?

While I was looking for something like this, I did find out that holding down the home key for 5 seconds shows the 6 most recent open apps. I have a terminal window, I can type ps -x, therefore, I should be able to type kill -9 and have it work! But no. I’d also like the apps written with the option to close them! So, briguy992’s comment made me think, but also totally annoyed me, so in the spirit of this blog, I have to give him hell. That’s just how I roll!

A bunch of people commented on my long complaint about how mad I get in airports while travelling with a wheelchair. Disabled or not, lots of folks notice the dehumanizing treatment that goes along with air travel. Of course it is not just air travel or airports; it’s any big institution whose power goes unchecked by the people it (in theory) serves.

* S. Bear Bergman started a whole different conversation from thinking about diversity training issues. He asked his readers to undergo the cruel discipline of Twitter (or, to enter 140 character thoughts into a form on LJ) some short, crucial concepts on being trans. A bunch of people, including Kate Bornstein, responded! Now, that’s a cool sparky cascading result to this contest!

* Amanda’s comment about her brother being treated like a pre-schooler in a social group for people with disabilities was touching and made me boiling mad. That is the treatment most older people get in nursing homes and assisted living and it’s what a lot of people with disabilities get too. Hello to Amanda’s brother, and I wonder what he would say to what I wrote?

3 Responses to HP Magic Giveaway entries so far

Grrr, don’t you hate it when you type a long remark, copy it so you can migrate to another page and then accidentally copy something else (thus losing the first one)?

Rats.

OK, 2nd try. Your comments about disabled travel took me back many years to travel with my mom. Mom was quite a character and she loved to gamble. We flew to Las Vegas and our experience was a lot better than yours. She was able to drive her electric wheelchair to the gangplank. When we got to Vegas the chair was waiting as soon as we got off the plane.

The only complaint we had was having to call ahead for handicap cabs — the waits always took forever. But everyone was helpful, and we’d even plug in her chair at the casino to recharge it! Mom was a hoot.

We took that chair (courtesy of the lift on my car) all over the country — North Carolina, Washington DC and Vermont. That chair gave her freedom and I’m grateful for the memories and her happiness.

Well, I am rattling on. My son has disabilities, but they aren’t visible to the naked eye. I see far worse prejudice against him because he isn’t so easily identifiable as having special needs. As a result he gets “picked on” by some kids for accommodations at school. The good news is that he has loads of friends and they stick up for him.

Your blog is funny, touching and educational — thanks for letting me know about it. I’m keeping my fingers crossed on the giveaway. What a lot of fun you’ll have choosing the right person!

IF I win my son would get one computer. He really needs one (he has a garage sale $20 computer I bought 2 years ago). Donating the second one would be a blast — I’d call the school and ask the guidance counselor to recommend a kid who really needs one and can’t afford it — and donate it secretly through the school.

B) If I were to win, I would start "Sharing the Magic" locally: I would give my wife the TouchSmart PC because she's never had a new computer and I would give my friend who is looking to buy a new PC (he helped me get a job after nine months of unemployment) one of the laptops as a thank-you/X-Mas gift. With the influx of new technology, I would refurbish and give away most if not all of the old PC's (6-8 of them) that I have accumulated and use to people who would appreciate and use them.

It’s hard to miss the treatment of anyone with special needs at airports. I often wonder how many people are quietly outraged.

There’s a book that I highly recommend reading. It was published in 1997, and is available on Amazon for as cheap as a penny. It’s called The Futures of Women: Scenarios for the 21st Century. It describes four possible scenarios (read: NOT about telling the future) that are described by a grid of group vs. individual rights, against sluggish vs. strong economic growth.

In it, you can see reasons that this debasing treatment is likely to be more common, more disgusting as the economy sinks.

Thankfully there are four very different stories. I look forward to working toward one in particular.